I have personally been selling PC’s, PC Peripherals and scanners since 1995. When I came to ImageSource in June of 2000, I had to learn the document scanner side of things. ImageSource was definitely an early adopter of the VRS (Virtual Rescan) Technology. This insight was driven by being close partners with Fujitsu and Kofax. In the beginning, you had to have extra hardware components in the scanner and host PC to make the equation functional. The installations were clumsy at times, but it really was the best way to get the best quality image from your scanner.

The new Fujitsu Scanners consisting of the fi-7160, fi-7180, fi-7260 and fi7280 combine new features such as “Acoustic Paper Protection and Skew Prevention” technology with faster speeds. The fi-7180 and fi-7280, which includes a flatbed have speeds of 80 pages per minute and 160 images per minute while the fi-7160 and fi-7260, also includes flatbed, have speeds of 60ppm and 120ipm.

Is this a common question in your organization? Well, good news. There are scanners that can scan documents that are larger than 8 ½” by 11”. Even 8 ½” by 17”! In our industry, we call them Large Format Scanners.

Large Format Scanners can scan documents up to 58” wide and up to several feet in length. The scanned image can also look better than the original – just like with production and desktop scanners. Large documents can be scanned in resolution of up to 600 dpi. The speed of these scanners is impressive as well – up to 16” per second. Another great feature of these scanners is that they require few or no consumables to maintain their performance. The manufacturer leaders in this industry include ImagePRO and Contex/Vidar. Both of these manufacturers ship equipment with a standard 2 year on-site warranty agreement – a great add-on feature. The ImagePRO line also uses LED technology which provides instant-on color calibration translating into no waiting time for calibration.

Businesses/organizations in which Large Format Scanners are commonly found include Architectural firms, counties’ assessors’ offices, galleries, geological surveyors, companies that produce maps, public utilities divisions, photography studios, manufacturers of airplanes and trains, etc.

The scanned image can be seamlessly imported into your existing enterprise content or document management system. Typical software shipped with these scanners allows you to scan the document to a JPEG, PDF, or TIFF. You can also scan-to-net as well. In terms of drivers, most large format scanners work with TWAIN and in terms of interface, they use SCSI III, USB 2.0 and/or Ethernet. These scanners ship network ready.

At the end of the day, feel confident that no matter how physically large yours document are, there is a scanner out there that can capture them, and give you the benefits of digital storage and deliverability that you have grown accustomed to in your normal day to day business with normal sized ones.